An evaluation of barriers to E-Procurement in Turkish construction industry

Abstract

What: E-procurement provides chances for enhancing the traditional procurement approaches of the construction industry. Both suppliers and buyers in the supply chain utilize e-procurement methods as these help in the processes through providing opportunities for better communication and coordination. E-procurement expands the marketplace for all parties, which take part in the process. With e-procurement, the buyer gains the strategic advantage of i.) reaching more and more suppliers and ii.) the products of lower cost, while the supplier gets the advantage of reaching new customers in the online markets. In contrast to the globalization of procurement in many of the production sectors, research indicates that the advancement of e-procurement in the construction industry is slow and mostly occurs at the national level. This current situation is mainly caused by the barriers to e-procurement that appear from both supplier and buyer sides. How: This paper explores the barriers to e-procurement in relation to the Construction Industry based on the data gathered from Turkey. The study involves an extensive literature review and a web-based questionnaire survey and interviews to determine the key barriers to e-procurement in the construction industry. 64 stakeholders including engineers, architects from the public and private organizations (such as contractors, sub-contractors), and the providers of e-procurement services in Turkey participated in the study. Why: The findings indicated that the construction business organizations still seem to have not benefited from most values of e-procurement. The results of the study indicated the lack of trust between the parties and inadequacy of legal infrastructure as the most critical barriers. Another key barrier appears as the fear of unauthorized access to the critical project information. Efforts towards enhancing the security such as implementation of blockchain technologies and development of the legal infrastructure supporting these technologies can a key step towards overcoming key barriers to e-procurement. © BEIESP.